An arrow includes an arrow shaft having a tip, a nock, and fletching. Traditionally, arrow tips are mounted directly to the arrow shaft. Arrow tips have a point with a protruding stud, where the stud is inserted and fixedly attached within the arrow shaft as the point rests on the front edge of the arrow shaft. There are several disadvantages to these traditional arrow tips and their method of attachment. A particular disadvantage of directly mounting the arrow tips to the arrow shafts is that they are typically permanently affixed to the arrow shafts. This inhibits the user from changing between different tips for use on the arrow shaft. Additionally, if the arrow shaft breaks the tip would not be able to be reused with an alternative arrow shaft. Another disadvantage is that the arrow tip delivers a majority of the impact forces to the front edge of the arrow shaft thereby damaging it. Particularly in carbon fiber arrow shafts, the forces of the tip on the arrow shaft eventually degrades the epoxy resulting in the fraying of the individual carbon fibers. In order to overcome these disadvantages, arrow tip inserts have been created with varying results.
Arrow tip inserts have been created to overcome the disadvantages of directly mounting an arrow tip to the arrow shaft. Arrow tip inserts typically have a body formed with a bore to receive an arrow tip. The body is further formed with a protruding stud to mount the arrow tip insert to the arrow shaft. The bore can be further formed with threads to threadably receive arrow tips. This enables a user to switch arrow tips by unthreading the tip from the insert. Alternative arrow tip inserts are further formed with a circumferential groove on the body adjacent the stud to accept the arrow shaft walls, thereby forming a collar around the arrow shaft walls. The arrow tip stud is inserted into the arrow shaft and the front-edge of the arrow shaft contacts the insert. This arrangement enhances the strength of the connection between the arrow tip insert and the arrow shaft by having the tip of the arrow shaft inserted within the circumferential groove and overlapped by the collar. However, in both cases, the majority of the impact is still absorbed by the front edge of the arrow shaft thereby leading to eventual failure of the front edge arrow of the shaft after periods of use.
An alternative arrow tip insert has been created with the aim to overcome the disadvantages of the arrow tip insert as mentioned above. In this particular prior art embodiment, the arrow tip insert is a cylindrical rod having an internal threaded bore at one end and circumferential grooves formed on the exterior of the cylindrical rod adjacent the opposite end. The cylindrical rod is dimensioned to be fully inserted and enclosed within the arrow shaft and fixedly attached. The arrow tip having a point formed with a stud, the stud having a threaded portion, is threadably received by the internal threaded bore of the arrow tip insert. As the arrow tip is threaded onto the arrow tip insert, the stud contacts the side walls and the point contacts the front edge of the arrow shaft. Although the arrow tip is removable, the majority of the impact forces from the arrow tip remains concentrated on the front edge of the arrow shaft. Although the disadvantages of the traditional arrow tip and arrow shaft have been addressed by the prior art, the prior art has failed to create a solution to overcome all of the disadvantages.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide an arrow with an arrow tip, arrow tip insert, and arrow tip collar having the ability to dampen the impact of the arrow tip to the front edge of the arrow shaft. It would further be advantageous to provide an arrow tip with the ability to be removably attached to an arrow shaft. It would further be advantageous to provide an arrow tip removably attached to an arrow shaft in which the arrow tip does not protrude within the bore of the arrow shaft, completely removing the arrow tip from being inserted into the bore of the arrow shaft.